Friday, May 2, 2008

a couple nights ago my husband and i attended the viewing of the son of our o.b. who had died of brain cancer. we had never met him, but after standing in the line to greet the family we felt so inspired by this incredible man. as we stood in line (for an hour--then we were told by some of their close friends to play the pregnancy card and go to the front of the line--because it would have been at least another hour more) we visited with some of his friends who had come from several states to be there. it was so inspiring to hear the stories that they told about Rich and his little family. he was a really remarkable man. there was a man there who was not a member of our church who had become a close friend of his while working in texas. there were people who knew he and his wife on a study abroad in jerusalem. there were people from kansas and minnesota who knew them as newlyweds. when we finally got to see our dr. he just cried and hugged us. he thanked us several times for coming and told us how much he loved us. we thanked him for being there through some of our most difficult trials (losing 2 babies). we told him and rich's wife how inspired we were by the conversations that we had with their friends. we told them that he sounded like the most remarkable man! our dr. told us that he was just amazing and that he must have passed the test that we are all struggling to pass--he laughed and said that rich passed and he (our dr.) obviously hasn't because he is "so old!" as we left there was a CD to take called "live rich!" that was their families motto. they said that Rich really knew how to "live rich!" his priorities were in line--he knew what and who was most important in his life. after the viewing we listened to the cd--I bawled. he spoke for about 10 minutes about what he has learned and then the remainder was his piano music. he was so talented. as we were driving home my husband and i were discussing whether or not we are the kind of friends that rich was to his. would people travel several miles to attend our services? have we left an impact on people? it was a wonderful, spiritual, thought provoking night.